Atop the cliff

Standing atop the cliff here I am. Looking out over the sea. I breathe in the ocean air. The wind flitters through my hair.

Here I am. 200 meters above the sea. Here I am. Betwixt turmoil and trouble, here I am. A lone statue gazing towards infinity. Atop the hill, here I am. The wind batters me. The salt sears my skin. Here I am. The whispering grass is my company, the roaring wind is my accomplice. Here I am, in betwixt a grey sky and a stretching horizon.

I feel the wind battering me. I feel it rush through every inch of my skin. The only sound to be heard is the whistling wind and the crashing waves. Not a soul in sight, not a life in sight. Here I am. Myself and nature. Here I am. How more fundamental can you get. Here I am, standing atop the cliff. Here I am, gazing out afar. Here I am.

Miseries forgotten, troubles left behind. Here I am, standing atop this cliff. The wind is my catharsis, the waves are the killers of my woe. This is where I stand, this is where I am. And it is in this desolace one revels. Here, thousands of miles away from the nearest soul, one finds what it means to be oneself. Here, facing nature alone, one finds the true nature of life. Here, here, here, atop the cliff. Inches away from the waters below, here one finds the meaning of life. Here, here. Not anywhere else – but here, amidst this wind, amidst these waves, amidst these rolling grass – here one finds company, here one finds what it means to be. I have not felt more alive before. As the wind batters me I feel the blood course through my veins.

Away, away, away from it all! Here! Yes, I am finally here! I am gazing out, towards the endless ocean, to all that lies ahead. Yes, here! Behind me, lies all that came before, the miseries and woes of civilization, of all that and more. But they lie all behind me; what is evident right now is the wind on my skin, and the crush of the waves. Here, I define life. Here, I define what it means to be. It is my decision. It is in my control. Here, as the wind soars through who I am, I feel more alive than ever. It is the ecstacy of being who you are, against nature and nature alone.

The wind is refreshing. The life is empowering. Here I find who I am. Here I realise who I am. This is life. So long as you have a beating heart – that is life. All else is excess – needless excess. I bathe in the gushing rain. My skin is cleansed by nature’s force. I relish it, I cherish it. This is real – THIS is real.

I open my eyes. The sun is rising over the horizon. I feel bliss like I have never felt before. I feel that in order to be – I just need a beating heart. That is all. All else is how we make of it. All else is excess.

Nature and me. Me and nature. Nothing else. I have never felt in my place so much before. I have never felt such belonging ever before. Suddenly, I can breathe with the land beneath my feet, the ocean that lie before me. Suddenly, they come alive, they are more real than anything I’ve seen before. This is real. This is real. And I feel free. Free. Alive.